Let us illustrate the matter by supposing a glass of water to be set in the middle of a table, round the margin of which are placed little heaps of salt, and of powders of different colours.

If the water be poured out, it will run all over the table in divergent rivulets, and will become salt where it touches the salt, red where it touches the red powder, and so on.

The water does not change the '_places_,' but the several '_places_' differentiate the water.[4] In the same way, the seed which is the product of the four Elements is projected in all directions from the earth-centre, and produces different things, according to the quality of the different places.

Thus, while the seed of all things is one, it is made to generate a great variety of things....

So long as Nature's seed remains in the centre it can indifferently produce a tree or a metal, a herb or a stone, and in like manner, according to the purity of the place, it will produce what is less or more pure." [4] The author I am quoting had said--"Nature is divided into four '_places_' in which she brings forth all things that appear and that are in the shade; and according to the good or bad quality of the '_place_,' she brings forth good or bad things....